Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday claimed that the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre has frozen the accounts of the party and called it an “assault” on the country’s democracy.

In a post on X, Kharge wrote, “Power drunk Modi government has frozen the accounts of the country’s largest Opposition party – the Indian National Congress – just before the Lok Sabha elections. This is a deep assault on India’s democracy.”

Attacking the ruling dispensation, the Congress chief further said, “The ‘unconstitutional’ money collected by the BJP would be utilised by them for elections, but the money collected by us through ‘crowdfunding’ shall be sealed.
That is why I have said that there won’t be any elections in the future.”

Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, appealed to the Judiciary to “save the multi-party system in this country and protect India’s democracy”.

He also said the party will take to the streets and fight strongly against this “autocracy” of the incumbent government.

Meanwhile, Congress’ Treasurer Ajay Maken at a press conference at the party headquarters, claimed that the accounts of the Congress as well as its Youth wing have been frozen and asserted that the democracy was under attack.

“Democracy has completely ended in India. All the accounts of the country’s main Opposition party Congress have been frozen. Not only Congress party, the accounts of the Youth Congress have also been frozen,” he said.

Maken claimed that the Income Tax department has asked for a recovery of Rs 210 crore and added that the money that are in the accounts are of online crowdfunding of the party and membership drive of the youth wing.

“The Congress party’s accounts have not been frozen, our country’s democracy has been frozen,” he pointed out.

“When two weeks are left for the announcement of elections, at such a time the accounts of the principal Opposition party have been frozen. What does the government want to show ? ” Maken asked.

He stressed that this was a matter of grave concern.